Police called to the scene found the 72-year-old sitting on a sofa in the living room and the body of his wife wedged between their double bed and the wardrobe. She had died of serious head injuries.

Chapman had tried to throw himself from a balcony “but was unable to do so”, the prosecutor told the court.

“That vase had been a gift years before,” said Mr Jackson. “It was made by one of her sons when he was a schoolboy.

“It’s the prosecution case that when his wife was in bed and probably asleep, this defendant hit her probably 10 times with the wooden vase.”

He said the couple had been married for more than 35 years and had no children together, but Mrs Chapman had two sons from a previous marriage and was a grandmother.

A birthday card found in the flat from Chapman to his wife said: “All my love, thank you for your understanding.”

Bruce Bowers, one of Mrs Chapman’s two sons from a previous marriage, said in a victim impact statement that the family were in “shock and disbelief”.

“If he had wanted to end his life, he should have just got on with it,” he said.

Judge Charles Gratwicke, sentencing, said it was a “merciless, sustained attack on a defenceless woman who stood no chance as she slept” and that there was no suggestion Mrs Chapman showed her husband “anything other than love and affection”.

Craig Rush, mitigating, said Chapman pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, had a depressive illness and sent his apologies to his wife’s two sons from her previous marriage.